A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCEBarbican Theatre, London EC2Opened 2 October, 1991

The RSC's unofficial "Long-lost natural sons who turn up to make their
fathers' lives complete and then go doolally on them" season continues
with Philip Prowse's defiantly lush late-Victorian kitsch production of
Wilde's 1893 skeleton-in-closet play. Against a stomach-churningly
gilded set which at one point evokes the phrase "Turkish tart's boudoir",
Prowse's cast move and speak in a manner that takes Wildean poise to ritualistic
extremes.

Rather than leaving the audience softened and vulnerable to the drama,
poetry and sentiment revealed as the play progresses, though, this approach
numbs them – the wronged Mrs Arbuthnot (or "Aargh-burghth-naught", as her
erstwhile seducer insists on calling her) sits among the fripperies like
Patience on a monument; the whole spectacle lacks focus and perspective.
Oscar is more than just a consummate epigrammatist, but that "more" can't
be taken for granted. Prowse not only does so, but contrives to turn even
the jewels into glass – gaudy, but of no durability or worth.